Burton, Ernest de Witt
BURTON, ERNEST DE WITT: Baptist; b. at
Granville, O., Feb. 4, 1856. He was educated at
Denison University, Granville, O. (B.A., 1876),
and Rochester Theological Seminary (1882), and
also studied at the universities of Leipsic (1887)
and Berlin (1894). He was an instructor in Kalamazoo
College, Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1876–77,
and a teacher in the public schools of Xenia and
Norwood, O., in 1877–79. In 1882 he was appointed
instructor in New Testament Greek in Rochester
Theological Seminary, but in the following year
was called to Newton Theological Institution as
associate professor of New Testament interpretation,
and was full professor there from 1886 to
1892. In the latter year he went to the University
of Chicago as professor of New Testament literature
and interpretation, and head of the department
of Biblical and patristic Greek, a position
which he still holds. He has been a member of
the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis
since 1883 and of the Chicago Society of Biblical
Research since 1892. In theology and Biblical
criticism his attitude is that of a conservative
progressive. He has been associate editor of the
Biblical World since 1892 and of the American
Journal of Theology since 1897. He has also written:
Syntax of the Moods and Tenses in New Testament
Greek (Chicago, 1893); Harmony of the Gospels
for Historical Study (New York, 1894; in collaboration
with W. A. Stevens); Handbook of the Life
of Christ (1894; in collaboration with W. A. Stevens);
Records and Letters of the Apostolic Age (1895);
Handbook of the Life of Paul (Chicago, 1899); Constructive Studies in the Life of Christ (1901; in
collaboration with S. Mathews); Principles and
Ideals of the Sunday School (1903; in collaboration
with S. Mathews); Short Introduction to the Gospels
(1904); Studies in the Gospel of Mark (1904); and
Some Principles of Literary Criticism and their
Application to the Synoptic Problem (1904).